Of course, people who survived stroke are happy for their second life and are now concerned with taking care of their cardiovascular system; their worries don't just stop there. A group of scientists published a new study has indicated that suffering from stroke can be linked to an increased risk of cancer in the next few years.
The study was presented at the American Stroke Association's International Conference and they discussed their findings that people who survived stroke and developed cancer are up to three times more likely to die than those who did not develop cancer.
In the study, the researchers from the Zeenat Qureshi Stroke Institute in St. Cloud, Minnesota, followed 3,247 ischemic stroke survivors who did not have cancer before. After two years of observation and follow-up, around two percent were newly diagnosed with cancer. Medical News Today reported, they compared the date from the National Cancer Institute showing cancer rates and the risk of death and other cardiovascular events for the whole population.
"We already knew that cancer patients are at increased risk of stroke. But what happens when you turn it around and look at cancer risks for ischemic stroke survivors? That was our question," said Malik Adil, M.D., lead author from the research team at the Zeenat Qureshi Stroke Institute in St Cloud, Minnesota.
They determined the risk of cancer was about 40% higher than the normal in older adults in the country. However, studies in the past have already created an association between the two. Reports explained that cancer has the ability to cause hyper-coagulation or excessive blood clotting. Hence, this can be a strong stroke risk factor.
Another reason is perhaps chronic and low-grade inflammation, which is believed to predispose people to cardiovascular diseases and cancer. That is according to Dr. Philip Gorelick, a stroke specialist at Mercy Health and Michigan State University in Grand Rapids, who was not involved in the study.
They also found that the cancer rate among stroke survivors has increased in the long run and at one year after a stroke, the rate of cancer was 1.2 times higher than the whole or general population. The next year, it increased to 1.4 times higher.
Dr. Adil explains, "When tissues get less oxygen due to blocked blood vessels, it destroys tissue cells and sets off a series of events to alter the normal physiology and may lead to cancer."
He added, "If you've had a stroke before, especially with another high-risk factor, it's important that you talk to your doctor and discuss earlier cancer screening. Factors that may put a person at higher risk for developing cancer include: cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption and a family history of cancer."
Stroke affects nearly a million Americans and kills 130,000 in the United States every year.
